Electrical switch



B. D. HORTON.

ELECTRICAL SWlTCH; APPLlCATION F lLED FEB. 15. 1919.

1,407,41 I Patented Feb. 21, 1922 ATTO/P/VEV TE OFFICE.

person n; isomers, or nnr aorr, moment.

Original application filed. March 24.,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Bnrson D. Horrors, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Switches, of which the following is a full, clear, and

. concise description. I

This invention relates toelectric switches and especially those of the type known as enclosed'or iron clad switches. This type of switch is generally made up by folding,

a sheet of metal into a boxlike structure,

then mounting on the bottom of the box a In the wall of the box, it is customary to mount some sort of an operating handle, and in the case of switches having pivoted contacts and a pivoted operating handle, it is desirable that these pivots be aligned. In the commercial manufacture, however, of such switches it is diiiicult to obtain satisfactory alignment, owing to the various inaccuracies which are unavoidable.

This invention is in the nature of animprovement on the switches shown in my prior Patents 1,19O,9O3, J1ily 21, 1916, and 1,114,988, ()ctober 27, 1914. In these patent's, I have shown switches of the type above described. In these switches a round .eye

" has been used to connect the operating crank with the cross arm of a pivotedswitch. I

have found, however, that in manufacturing these switches the eye does not provide for the inaccuracies of alignment which come during their 'manufacture. The eye was made as shown to have a hole of the same size as the diameter of the rod on the operating crank Any inaccuracies, therefore, which the particular switch had must be taken up by permanently bending the crank to fit.

It is, therefore, an object of' my invention to provide an improved structure which will compensate for the disalignment of the pivots in such switches without greatl creasing the cost of the switch nor adding to it any undesirable elements.

In the accompanying drawing, I have shown one form of my improved construction; The scope of my invention is, however,

I a be limited solely by the claims. and the prior state of the art.

Referring to the drawing,

ELEGTRICAL SWITEGH.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patnted F b. 21 1922 1915, Serial no.

15, 1919. Serial No. 277,191.

Figure 1 shows a top plan of a switch einbodying my invention, and

fligigure 2 shows a section on the line 2 o ig. 1.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the form in which my switch may be embodied as shown in the drawing, the reference numeral]. refers to a switch box having upright walls 2 and a bottom 3. Mounted on this bottom by means of screws 4'is an insulating slab 5 which carries fixed contacts 6 and 7 for a switch. The contact 6 is adapted to be the pivotal mounting for a knife blade 8. The above is the usual construction. Fast to the knife blade 8, but insulated therefrom in the form shown, is an upright ear 9 having an elongated slot 10 therein. This slot is elongated in the general direction of the knife blade 8.

In the side wall 2 of the box, an operating crank 11 is -mounted in. approximate alignment with the pivot of the knife blade 8. This is shown by the line wa. The operating crank has a handle 12 exterior to the box and a radially ofiset portion 13 within the box which terminates in a bent end 14- which is approximately parallel with the axis of rotation-of the handle. This end 14. is adapted to pass through the elongated slot lO which is rigid with the pivotal contact 8.

This slot 10 and the portion 14 of the operating crank will cooperate in opening and closing the switch even when the pivot for the knife blade and the pivot for the oper ating crank are considerably out of align- ,ment. They, therefore, compensate for the inaccuracies which occur in the commercial manufacture of switches of this typeqan'd allow for free operation of the switch by thehandle without imposing undue friction as in my patents referred to above; or that it may be also'applied to SWitchessuch as that shown in Patent 1,106,639 in which the operating crank is connected to the cross bar beyond the contact engaging portion of the knife blades.

I to switchesihaving a plurality of knife blades and a cross bar, I 1105 While it has been well known in the art to provide slotted constructions in switches in which the operating member is pivoted remotely from the contacts, this has been used as a lost motion connection and not to compensate for inaccuracies of manufacture. So far as I am informed, I believe I am the first to use the slotted construction for compensating for the inaccuracies of manufacture which come about in making enclosed switches having substantially aligned operating means and pivoted contacts.

The above description is therefore to be considered as descriptive-only and not to be taken in a limited sense.

This application is a division of my co- Eendin application Serial Number 16,610, led arch'24, 1915, for electrical switches.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, in combination, a casing having a first and second wall, a switch base fast to said first wall, a fixed contact and a movable contact on said base, an operating means having a pivotal mounting 1n the second wall of the casing, the pivotal mounting of said means and of the movable contact being approximately in alignment, and means interconnectlng the operating means and movable contact to compensate for disalignment of the pivotal mountings, said interconnecting means comprising a member fast to the movable contact and having an elongated opening therein, said operating means passing throu h the opening.

2. n a device of the character described, in combination, a casing having a first and a second wall, a switch base fast to said first wall, a fixed contact and a movable contact on said base, an operating means having a pivotal mounting in the second wall of the casing, the pivotal mounting of said means and of the movable contact being approximately in alignment, and means interconnecting the operating means and movable contact to compensate for disalignment of the pivotal mountings, said interconnecting means comprising a member fast to the movable contact and having an openin therein, elongated in the directlon of the rst wall, said operating means passing into said opening.

3. In a device of the classdescribed, in combination, a base, a fixed contact and a movable contact mounted on a pivot on said base, a plate provided with a slot or opening therein and mounted to oscillate with the movable contact, but insulated therefrom, a casing on one wall of which said base is mounted and on another wall of which an operating means is pivoted in approximate alignment with the pivot of the movable contact, said operating means interengaging with said plate, said slot or opening having a length in the direction of thefirst wall suflicient to compensate for disalignment of the pivots.

4. In a device of the class described, in combination, a pivoted switch blade, an insulating support therefor, the blade having rigid therewith a portion provided with an opening elongated in the direction of the blade, operating means for said blade adapted to engage said opening and comprising a crank, and means forsupporting said insulating support and for providing a pivotal mounting for said crank in approximate alignment with the pivot of the switch blade, said crank and said blade being insulated from one another.

5. In a device of the character described, in combination, a casing, having a first and a second wall, a switch base fast to said first wall, a fixed contact and a movable contact on said base, an operating means having a pivotal mounting in the second Wall of the casing, the pivotal mounting of said means and of the movable contact being approximately in alignment, and connecting mechanism extending from the operating means to the movable contact, said mechanism having flexibility in order to compensate for slight differences in the alignment of the pivotal mountings.

BBYSON D. HORTON. 

